Young people, "Lying flat" & zero sum futures
WinSocially Newsletter
A reintroduction
As some of you will be aware, a few years ago we moved from a newsletter to more tailored one-to-one forms of communication. However, we've been fielding many requests for a more general snapshot of our thinking. To cater to that, we decided to relaunch our newsletter. Please bear with us as we work through the format and content.
On our radar:
The "lie flat" lifestyle is something that we’ve been paying attention for some time. It is a social phenomenon that originated in China, which represents a growing trend among young people to reject the pressures of modern society, like the relentless pursuit of professional advancement, wealth, and consumerism, in favour of a minimalist, low-effort, and low-consumption lifestyle.
With that in mind, these two recent articles seemed to us as portents.
While this presents a different perspective of those choosing to re-prioritise their lives, we noted the motivations stemmed from a sense of a lack of opportunities, and disillusionment with the idea of a meritocracy.
Social mobility in the UK is at its worst in more than 50 years, a recent study from the Institute for Fiscal Studies found, with children from poor households finding it harder than 40 years ago to move into higher income brackets. The IFS said gifts and inheritances from older generations were becoming more important to household incomes.
The data presented suggests if an individual’s developmental years unfolded amidst prosperity and ascending mobility, they generally adopt a more expansive mindset, perceiving that enlarging the overall wealth pool is plausible instead of merely reallocating existing shares. Those raised in more difficult economic environments are often more inclined towards a zero-sum perspective and are dubious about the notion that hard work culminates in success.
Whether politically, or more broadly socio-economically, a growing disillusioned & apathetic demographic should be of concern to all of us.
Elsewhere:
Opposition media boycott: Does attacking hate in the media go against principles of free speech?
From an Indian perspective, this is an aspect of a question we are frequently asked given the increasingly partisan nature of the media: “Should I engage with media that is hostile to me?”
An interview with Craig Elder who was heavily involved in the Conservative Party digital campaigns of 2010, 2015 and 2017.
We do have to accept that the platforms really have changed. In my agency work now, fewer of the brands we work with care much about what’s happening on Facebook. So yes, there’s more interest in TikTok. I’ve got mixed feelings about the concept of ‘influencers’, but on platforms like that they are important to a degree. I suspect their importance plays into Labour’s hands, as does the fact that Instagram is probably more dominant than Facebook itself. But ultimately the question has to be “do you really get your audience?”, and working out how to find those people where they are.
Edelman’s Future of Corporate Communications study examines the current state, evolution, and forward focus of the corporate communications function and communicators' leadership role in today’s multi-stakeholder universe.
Poll-driven politics does nobody any favours [paywall]
Perhaps most important of all, political science has shown that for decades now, what voters care about above all else is competence on the key issues facing the country, not differences in position on second-tier concerns.
If a party wants to improve its standing with the public, not to mention improve the material circumstances of the country, its best strategy is to solve problems, not obsess about the polls.
